"And So I Have Fallen..."

It all began at level 55. As a mid-level Paladin I set out with complete strangers to defeat the Shadowlord in what I thought was a mission to bring peace to the land. I later learned this was not the case, but reguardless, I was successful:


The once mighty Raogrimm had finally been released from his hate, and was able to find himself yet again. It should have all ended there. With forgiveness found, his soul should have found peace.

It did not.

Our paths crossed once again, 10 levels later. Upon reaching 65 Paladin one of my first acts was to travel to the frozen northlands, the cursed realm of Xarcabard. This was at one point the location of the stronghold of the enemy, of the Shadowlord. It seems things do not change.

I found his soul wandering, barely able to hold on. His time was short, he was only able to relay a simple message:

His soul had become trapped in Dynamis, a shadow realm which echoed our very own. Once a potential safehold from evil, it had been corrupted by the darkness, by the very soul of the Shadowlord himself. Raogrimm was no longer at peace, his darkness still ate away at him in the other realm.

He still needed to make peace with those whom betrayed him...not just his lost love.

With this new task at hand, I got lucky and was able to join a great Dynamis Linkshell: "ExplorerII" with the hope of assisting in the completion of this mission. So far, I have cleared Dynamis-Windy, and Dynamis-Bastok. Sandy and Jeuno still escaped me, since they are usually done on Wednesdays, and I am not usually free on Wednesdays. I made an exception this once, with the hopes of clearing the zone. To clear the zone, you must defeat a "Mega Boss" monster, and click a ??? it leaves behind, essentially obtaining a piece of the Hydra Corps. gear left behind by the northern expadition where this all began.

Our run looked like the following:

What you see is what you get. We attempted to clear it despite the low turnout for the day. Just 18 people braved the madness of this zone, and we actually came very close to beating it. A lack of time and a messed up Mega Boss pull cost us the run, but I was still impressed with the effort of the team, being so shorthanded.

I played my usual role; one of two Paladins in the "Sleepga Party." This party has the job of handling adds, and links on pulls to the main alliance(s). PLDs voke the mobs to get their attention, and BLMs sleepga them to keep them at bay. The PLDs voke any new mobs, and try to keep hate on existing ones. The alliance then picks them off one at a time, to keep it all under control. Usually, my party consists of something like PLD, PLD, BLM, BLM, WHM, RDM. Being short on BLMs though, we subbed in a BRD for a BLM for increased mana recovery.

Now, in five of the six Dynamis zones (Excluding the new additional zones, I have no experience with those...yet...) there are Relic Armor drops for the jobs. It just so happens that Dynamis-Jeuno is the zone with nothing to offer Paladins in the relic armor department. I was strictly here for the clear, and the points. (...and the money drops, who can pass up the chance to make a usual 300K?) The Relic Shield drops here however, but we got no such drops, and I am not interested in the Relic weapons and shield at this point, strictly the armor.

I came out 400K ahead in my pocketbook, but due to a nasty death at the end, and me having to leave the computer before I could be raised, I ate a nasty -2400 exp loss. ...and no clear, the main reason I went. Ah well, it was still an experience, and I am glad I went.

As an additional note, the cool effect in the level 65 Dynamis unlocked CS made me look something like this:

See you in Upper Jeuno, I have some Dynamis currency to bazzar... (^.^)v